Yes, Notre Dame Does Have Something To Prove

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly was asked if his team has anything to prove when it takes on Alabama in the College Football Playoff, and his answer was surprising.

"No," Kelly said bluntly, as if surprised by the question. "No, I mean, we're knocking on the door every year, playing really good teams and great opponents, and they're elite football teams.

"I don't know why this narrative continues to pop up when we're always in the games," continued Kelly. "No, we haven't won a National Championship, that's correct. I'm not changing the record. But we are there every single year and we're grinding it out just like everybody else."

The criticism of the Notre Dame program goes well beyond simply not winning a championship, and Kelly knows that, no matter how much he pretends not to know where the narrative comes from. You don't win as much as Kelly has won without being a really smart guy, and he is a really smart guy, so he knows exactly where the narrative comes from.

It comes from his team's poor record against the best opponents on the schedule, and from the often embarrassing and non-competitive nature of those games when there is a lot at stake.

Kelly is just 3-14 in eleven seasons against opponents that finished the season ranked in the Top 10, which includes a 2020 regular season win over Clemson. Of course, that win is now scarred by the 34-10 trouncing the Irish received in the rematch against the Tigers.

Notre Dame is 0-3 in postseason games against top 10 opponents, 0-4 if you include the ACC title game, and the Irish have been outscored by an average of 37.5 to 13.8 in those four games.

And that is ultimately where the narrative comes from, and it began the last time Notre Dame faced Alabama.

The 12-0 Irish were dominated by Alabama in the BCS National Championship game that followed the 2012 season. It was a game that wasn't competitive from start to finish, as the Irish fell behind 28-0 at halftime and were down 35-0 before finally getting on the board.

Three years later, Notre Dame lost to Ohio State by a 44-28 score in the Fiesta Bowl, and again the game was never all that competitive. Every time Notre Dame tried to make it so, the defense immediately gave up a score to the Buckeyes.

In 2017, Notre Dame seemed to be getting over that hump when it battled Georgia to a 20-19 loss early in the regular season, and the Irish climbed all the way up to No. 3 in the College Football Playoff rankings.

No. 3 Notre Dame traveled to No. 7 Miami for a primetime November matchup, but the College Football Playoff hopes were flushed down the drain thanks to a convincing 41-8 Miami victory.

The following season the Irish again went 12-0, but this time Notre Dame's season ended with a 30-3 loss to Clemson in the College Football Playoff. While the defense was game, the offense never challenged the Tigers

Kelly likes to talk about how that game was much closer than the final score, and while correct, hanging your hat on a 27-point loss in a playoff game is actually further evidence of your program's futility in such games.

Kelly likes to point out that Clemson beat Alabama by 28 in the title game that season, and once again he's correct on the facts, but the spin just doesn't work.

Alabama gets a pass for that loss because it was an uncharacteristic game for the Tide. Alabama has won four national titles since Kelly arrived at Notre Dame, so you'll forgive people for giving them a pass the one time they get trounced on a national stage.

Head coach Nick Saban can point to his five rings and multiple big-game victories as evidence of that Clemson loss being the anomaly.

Kelly has no such victory to hang his hat on, and the one chance he got from his team's 47-40 double overtime victory was erased when a healthier Clemson squad destroyed the Irish in the ACC title game.

Another big moment, another crushing defeat.

The narrative exists because of what has occurred on the field in big games. Notre Dame not only falls short in those games, they are rarely competitive, and until that changes the narrative will rightly exist.

If Kelly wants to stop talking about it, or stop being asked questions about it, he needs to finally win one a College Football Playoff game and prove his team belongs on the same stage as the elite programs in the game.

Until then, whether Notre Dame's head coach likes it or not, or whether Fighting Irish faithful like it or not, the program absolutely has something to prove.

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